A bill that would have saved the Prince George’s County Hospital system never left a Maryland Senate committee last night because the County Council wouldn’t support the legislation, according to Del. Doyle Niemann.
Niemann, D-Prince George’s, said the Senate president had asked Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, also D-Prince George’s, not to act on the bill until the council was on board with the $329 million plan.
From Niemann to Gov. Martin O’Malley, many blamed the council for blocking a plan to save the system. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Upper Marlboro, council Chair Camille Exum said the council did not have sufficient time to review the bill after receiving the final version at 6 p.m. Monday, an hour before a hearing.
The council also said it was only willing to make a four-year financing commitment, through the end of its term. The bill also put taxpayers at risk, the council said, because of a provision that would have diverted state money from other Prince George’s projects if the county reneged on what would have been a $170.3 million commitment. Council Member Thomas Dernoga said there wasn’t a similar provision for the state.
Exum called the bill a “Band-Aid,” but said the council would be open to further negotiations.
Niemann, the bill’s original sponsor, said the council is “not a trustworthy body” and so the state, and specifically the governor, wanted a provision “that would hold them to the bargain.”
